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BRIEF SKETCH 



OF THE 



Battle of Gettysburg 



BY 



BREVET BRIG.-GEN. CHARLES HAMLIN 



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BRIEF SKETCH 



OF THE 



Battle of Gettysburg 



INTRODUCTION 

TO 

MAINE AT GETTYSBURG 



Brevet Brk;.-Gen. Charles Hamlin 



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THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBUEG. 

BY BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL CHARLES HAMLIN, 

LATE ASSISTANT ADJUTANT GENERAL, 
SECOND DIVISION THIRD ARMY CORPS, ARMY OF POTOMAC. 



A BRIEF sketch of this battle will enable the reader to under- 
stand the operations of both Union and Confederate 
troops given in detail, as they appear in the various 
accounts of the battle, hereafter in this volume. Such a sketch, 
indeed, is necessary for the general reader who desires a con- 
nected account, ])ecause the main })urpose of this volume is to 
give a particular account of the various regiments and batteries 
of the State of Maine, rather than a single and connected view. 

An invasion of the North was determined upon by the Con- 
federate authorities soon after the battle of Chancellorsville in 
May, 1863. It seems evident now that the causes which led 
to this invasion were, that the term of many of the Union sol- 
diers was expiring ; the late defeat at Chancellorsville ; and 
the hope and expectation to capture Philadelphia, Baltimore, 
and Washington, which might end the war through a recogni- 
tion of the Confederacy by foreign governments, followed by 
their intervention. 

On the second of June, Lee began his movement north 
with the withdrawal of his army from Fredericksburg. On 
the eighth, Ewell and Longstreet arrived at Culpeper, to 
which place Stuart had already advanced his cavalry. General 
Hooker, on June 5th, ordered a reconnaissance below Freder- 
icksburg, suspecting some important movement by General 
Lee. On the eighth, Pleasonton's cavalry and two brigades 
of infantry were ordered across the Rappahannock. On the 
morning of the ninth these forces crossed the river and attacked 
Stuart's cavalry at Brandy Station. Here occurred the first 



2 MAINE AT GETTYSBURG. 

successful fight by our cavalry when engaged in a large body. 
The First Maine Cavalry under Kilpatrick was engaged in 
this battle in desperate conflict and in which it bore itself with 
great credit. This struggle at Brandy vStation ended in defeat- 
ing and driving the Confederate cavalry from the field ; but on 
the arrival of EwelTs infantry from Culpeper, Pleasonton 
withdrew his forces and recrossed the river. By the capture 
of Sttiart's headquarters Lee's orders were found that showed 
his movement was north beyond the Union lines. 

On the tenth, EwelVs corps advanced beyond the Blue 
Ridge, passed north through Chester Gap, and marched rapidly 
up the Shenandoah Valley. /Stuarts cavalry was directed east 
of the Blue Ridge, to guard the passes, mask Lee's movements, 
and delay the advance of Hooker's army. On the fourteenth, 
EiveU attacked General Milroy at Winchester, who was 
hemmed in without definite information of the movement of 
Lee's army up the valley. Milroy attempted early in the 
morning of the fifteenth to steal his way out, and although 
discovered by the Confederates, succeeded in breaking through 
and retreated in haste, with heavy losses in men and material. 

Hill and Longstreet hurried northward, the latter covering 
the mountain gaps in his movements. On the sixteenth, Jen- 
kins with two thousand Confederate cavalry penetrated into 
Pennsylvania as far as Chambersburg. 

June 13th, Hooker put the Union army in motion and 
kept his command between the enemy and Washington. 
Pleasonton's cavalry encountered that of Stuart's on the sev- 
enteenth at Aldie ; and on the nineteenth at Middleburg and 
on the twenty-first at Upperville. On each of these fields the 
First Maine Regiment of Cavalry won new honors. After a 
severe engagement at Upperville the Confederate cavalry fell 
back through Ashby's Gap, and Pleasonton rejoined the 
infantry. Lee now seemed convinced that Hooker would not 
attack him south of the Potomac ; and on the twenty-second 
he ordered Eivell to cross the river into Maryland, where he 
came to the support of Jenkins, who being reinforced 
advanced again to Chambersburg. Here Rodes' and Johnson's 
divisions joined him on the twenty-third. Early's division, 



LEES INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 3 

in the meantime, moved via Gettysburg to York with instruc- 
tions to destroy the raih'oads and secure the bridge across the 
Susquehanna, after wliich he moved north and undertook with 
Ilodes and Johnmn to take possession of Harrisburg. On the 
twenty-third, Lee ordered Hill and Long street across the Poto- 
mac to unite at Hagerstown, and follow EwelVs corps up the 
Cumberland valley. 

When Hooker learned that Lee was concentrating his forces 
north of the Potomac, he advanced the Union army on a line 
parallel with that of the enemy. On the twenty-fifth and 
twenty-sixth, the Union army having crossed the Potomac, 
was massed between Harper's Ferry and Frederick City. On 
the twenty-sixth, Gordon's brigade of Earh/s division passed 
through the town of Gettysburg, and on the twenty-eighth 
Earh/s division reached York and Wrightsville. Gordon's 
brigade was prevented from crossing the Susquehanna by the 
destruction of the bridge at Wrightsville. On the twenty- 
eighth, Gen. George G. Meade was appointed to the com- 
mand of the Union anny, to succeed Hooker, who had asked, 
in the meantime, to be relieved. The immediate cause of 
Hooker's resignation arose from the refusal of Halleck, Gen- 
eral-in-chief , to give Hooker the control of ten thousand men 
under French at Harper's Ferry. Meade at once ordered the 
Union forces northward, placed his left wing, consisting of the 
First, Third, and Eleventh corps, under Reynolds, directing 
him to Emmitsburg, and advanced his right wing to New 
Windsor. At this time the cavalry was disposed as follows : 
Buford on the left, Kilpatrick in front, and Gregg on the 
right. Stuart had separated himself from Lee's infantry in 
Virginia, and set off on a raid around the right of the Union 
army on the twenty-fourth. He crossed the Potomac on the 
twenty-seventh, in rear of Hooker, intending to rejoin Lee by 
marching through Maryland. On the thirtieth he encountered 
Kilpatrick's cavalry at Hanover, where a short and spirited 
struggle ensued, in which Stuart was forced to retreat north- 
ward, at the same time abandoning some of his trains contain- 
ing captured property. On the next day, July 1st, he reached 
Carlisle, where he learned that Eiuell had moved south towards 



4 MAINE AT GETTYSBURG. 

Gettysburg. He bombarded Carlisle with shell, burned the 
government barracks, and then moved south, via Mount Holly 
Gap, and did not arrive on the battlefield until the afternoon 
of July 2d, having been separated seven days from General 
Lee. The absence of Stuarfs cavalry proved to be disadvan- 
tageous to General Lee, who did not know until the evening of 
the twenty-eighth, while at Chambersliurg, that Hooker had 
crossed the Potomac into Maryland. Lee still believed that 
Hooker was in Virginia, held there in check by Stuarf. 

Lee at once began to concentrate his army, sent Lwell 
orders to retire from Carlisle and to recall his troops near Har- 
risburg. Rodes' and Early's divisions were ordered to join 
Hilfs corps in the vicinity of Gettysburg, while Jo/mson's divis- 
ion with the artillery and trains approached the Chambersburg 
Pike via Shippensburg and Fayetteville. HiWs and EiceWs 
corps, on the thirtieth, advanced towards Gettysburg. Petti- 
grew'' s brigade, on the same day, was ordered with several 
wagons to Gettysburg to secure clothing and shoes. 

POSITION OF THE UNION ARMY, 

ON THK EVENING OF JUNE 30, 1863, TO THE SOUTH AND EAST, 
AND DISTANT FROM GETTTSBURG. 

First Corps, Doubleday (Second and Fifth Maine Batteries 
and Sixteenth Maine Regiment with this Corps), Marsh Creek, 

5 1-2 miles south. Second Corps, Hancock (Nineteenth Maine 
Regiment with this Corps), Uniontown, 20 miles south. Third 
Corps, Sickles (Third, Fourth, and Seventeenth Maine Regi- 
ments with this Corps), Bridgeport, 12 miles south. Fifth 
Corps, Sykes (Twentieth Maine Regiment with this Corps), 
Union Mills, 16 miles southeast. Sixth Corps, Sedgwick 
(Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Maine Regiments with this Corps) , 
Manchester, 34 miles southeast. Eleventh Corps, Howard, 
Emmitsburg, 10 miles south. Twelfth Corps, Slocum (Tenth 
Maine Battalion at Corps headquarters) , Littlestown, 10 miles 
southeast. Buford's cavalry, two brigades. Gamble's and 
Devin's, at Gettysburg. Merritt's (Regular) Brigade, Mechan- 
icstown, 18 miles south. Gregg's cavalry (First Maine 
Regiment with Gregg) , Westminster, 34 miles southeast. Kil- 
patrick's cavalry, Hanover, 14 miles east. 



MOVING TOWARDS GETTYSBURG. 5 

Dow's Sixth Maine Battery was with the Fourth Brigade 
of the reserve artillery, at Taneytown, 12 miles south. Co. D, 
2d U. S. Sharpshooters was with the Tliird Corps. 

General Meade's orders for July 1st were, for the First and 
Eleventh corps to move to Gettysburg, the Third to Emmits- 
burg, the Second to Taneytown, the Fifth to Hanover, and the 
Twelfth to Two Taverns ; the Sixth was left at Manchester. 

POSITION OF THE CONFEDERATE ARMY, 

ON THK BYBNING OF JONB 30, 1863, ^fORTH AND WEST, AND 
DISTANT FROM GKTTYSBURQ. 

First Corps, Longstreefs^ at Chambersburg, 25 miles 
northwest. Second Corps, EivelVs: divisions, Early's, near 
Heidlersburg, 12 miles northeast ; Rodes\ Heidlersburg, 10 
miles northeast ; Johnson's, Vicimij of Fayetteville, 21 miles 
northwest. Third Corps, HiWs: divisions, Andei'son's, Fay- 
etteville, 18 miles northwest ; Pender's, near Cashtown, 10 
miles northwest ; Heth's, at Cashtown, 8 miles northwest ; 
Pettigrew's brigade, at Marsh Creek, 3 1-2 miles northwest ; 
Stuarfs cavalry, near Dover, 21 miles northeast. 

General Lee's orders to Hill and Longstreet, for July 1st, 
were, for Heth's division with eight batteries to occupy Gettys- 
burg, Pender's division to move promptly to Heth's support. 
Longstreet was to follow tliis movement with McLaws' and 
Hood's divisions. 

Buford's cavalry division, on the left of the Union army, 
was approaching Gettj^sburg June 30th, on the Emmitsburg 
Road, and encountered Pettigrew's brigade entering the town 
from the west. Pettigrew fell back towards Cashtown to a 
position on Marsh Run, where he notified Hetli, to whose 
division he belonged, that Gettysburg was occupied by the 
Union forces. Buford's cavalry passed through the town of 
Gettysburg about half -past eleven o'clock in the forenoon. 
Halting west of Seminary ridge he went into camp, with 
Gamble's brigade south of the railroad to cover the approaches 
from Chambersburg and Hagerstown. Devin's brigade went 
to the north of the railroad, posting his videttes on all the 
roads north and northwest. Buford sent information to Rey- 
nolds of the presence of the enemy ; and Reynolds, who was 



b MAINE AT GETTYSBURG. 

instructed to occupy Gettysburg, advanced the First Corps 
from Emmitsburg to Marsh Creek, about five and one-half 
miles from Gettysburg. Meade moved his right wing forward 
to Manchester. On the night of the thirtieth, Buford held a 
conference with Reynolds at Marsh Creek, and returned, during 
the night, to his headquarters in Gettysburg with one of Rey- 
nolds' staff, who was to report to his chief early in the morning 
of the next day. 

At this time, Lee appears to have been fearful that his 
communications might be interrupted, and he was troubled by 
the naked defenses of Richmond. Zee, therefore, determined 
to draw back and make a diversion east of the South Mountain 
range to engage Meade's attention. Although Lee's plan of 
invasion had been thwarted, he determined to defeat Meade's 
army. On the other hand, Meade, having selected the general 
line of Pipe Creek for his defense, had thrown his left wing, 
preceded by Buford's cavalry, forward to Gettysburg as a 
mask. Both generals aimed to secure Gettysburg for the 
reason that it controlled the roads towards the Potomac. Its 
occupation by the Union army proved to be of great impor- 
tance when we consider the subsequent events. 

FIRST DAY. 

The first day's battle was fought on the west and north of 
Gettysburg. It began with Buford's cavalry holding back the 
enemy's infantry beyond and along Willoughby Run until the 
arrival of the First Corps, followed by the Eleventh Corps. 
A severe engagement, especially along the front of the First 
Corps, ensued, in which Reynolds lost his life ; and the Union 
forces, under Howard, were driven from the field after Ewell 
came from the north. Hall's Second Maine Battery opened 
the infantry fight as soon as it arrived on the ground and was 
placed in position north of the Chambersburg Pike. The prin- 
cipal fighting by the Confederates along the front of the First 
Corps was by two divisions of HiWs corps, who did not 
succeed after several attacks until reinforced by Ewell. It 
was then that the Sixteenth Maine Regiment was ordered to 



FIRST DAY OF BATTLE. 7 

take position on the extreme right of the Fu'st Corps, at the 
Mummasburg Road, and to hold the enemy in check so that 
the remnant of the division might fall back ; and thus, under 
imperative orders to stay there at all hazards, it was delivered 
to the enemy by relentless capture. 

Stevens' Fifth Maine Battery, which occupied a position 
near the Lutheran Seminary, was sharply engaged during HilVs 
final assault, and aided by its rapid and severe fire in checking 
the enemy. The two corps of the Union army fell back 
through the town of Gettysburg, with heavy loss, but were 
not vigorously pursued by the enemy. The check given to 
the enemy's advance by the hard and desperate fighting of the 
First Corps led to results worth all the sacrifice ; but to this 
day full credit has hardly been given to the gi'eat services 
rendered by that corps, familiar as we all are with the fearful 
losses inflicted upon it. The remnants of the two corps fell 
back upon Cemetery Hill, which lies to the south of the village 
of Gettysburg, and there awaited the arrival of the remainder 
of our army. 

The chief features of the ground occupied by the Union 
army during the remainder of the battle, July 2d and 3d, may 
be described briefly as follows : South of Gettysburg there is 
a chain of hills and bluffs shaped like a fish-hook. At the 
east, which we will call the barb of the hook, is Gulp's Hill ; 
and turning to the west is Cemetery Hill, which we will call 
the shank, running north and south until it terminates near a 
slope in a rocky, wooded peak called Round Top, having Little 
Round Top as a spur. The credit of selecting tliis position 
has been equally claimed by both Hancock and Howard. At 
Hancock's suggestion Meade brought the army forward from 
Pipe Creek to secure it. 

Lee, having arrived at Seminary Ridge with his troops near 
the close of the first day's battle, made an examination of the 
field and left Ewell to decide for himself how far he should 
follow up the attack upon the Union army at the east of the 
town at the close of the first day's battle. At this time LJivell, 
observing the strong position occupied by the Union forces 
upon Gulp's Hill by the arrival of the Twelfth Corps under 



is MAINE AT GETTYSBURG. 

Slocum, decided not to make an attack. Cemetery Hill at the 
same time was well occupied by infantry and artillery. 

On the second day Lee determined to assume the offensive 
and resolved to give battle, although it seems that when he 
opened his campaign he had declared that it should be an 
offensive-defensive one. Probably his success on the first day 
may have induced the belief that a change from his original 
plan was well warranted. He was also influenced by the belief 
that the attacking party has the moral advantage, and in the 
light of his experience at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville 
he thought he could succeed. Longstreet urged liim to move 
around the Union left, and manoeuvre Meade out of liis posi- 
tion by threatening his communications with "Washington ; but 
he declined to accept the advice. 

SECOND DAY. 

On the morning of the second, Lees general line was in 
concave order of battle, fronting the Union amiy, parallel to 
Cemetery Hill, and about a mile distant, with his left thrown 
to the east and through the town to a point opposite Culp's 
Hill. Longstreet was on his right, occupying Seminary Ridge, 
and about a mile distant from Cemetery Hill, with Hill in the 
centre and Eicell on the left. 

The Union position was in the following order, beginning 
on the right : Slocum on Culp's Hill ; Howard on Cemetery 
Hill ; Newton, who succeeded Doubleday, commanding the 
First Corps ; Hancock ; and Sickles ; the latter occupying the 
low gi'ound between Hancock on his right and Little Round 
Top on his left. The Twelfth Corps had come upon the 
ground after the fighting of the first day. The Second Corps 
arrived on the morning of the second day. Graham's and 
Ward's brigades of the First Division of the Third Corps came 
upon the ground about seven o'clock on the night of the first 
day, followed by two brigades of the Second Division late in 
the niofht. One brio:ade from each division, left at Emm its- 
burg with artillery to guard the mountain pass, came up to 
Gettysburg in the forenoon of the second. The Fifth and 
and Sixth corps, by a hard night's march, arrived upon the 



SECOND DAY OF BATTLE. if 

ground the second day. The morning of the second day was 
occupied by Meade in strengthening his position and watching 
for Lee's attack. He believed that Lee would attack him on 
the right of our line, and prepared to move against Lee from 
that point. He finally decided to remain on the defensive. 

Lee having perfected his plans, directed Lo7igstreet, with 
his two divisions, then upon the field, consisting of more than 
15,000 men, to attack a salient thrown out by Sickles from the 
general line on our left at the Emmitsburg Road. Neither army 
then occupied Round Top and Longstreet endeavored to capture 
it by extending his right in that direction. Sickles' thin line, 
of less than 10,000 men, resisted Longstreet for thi-ee hours 
along the front of the Third Corps position ; the main fighting 
of the First Division being from 4 : 15 to 6 : 30 p. m., and of the 
Second Division from G to 8 p. m. Towards the last of it, on 
both fronts, other troops came to the assistance of the Third 
Corps. A portion of the Fifth Corps, thrown into the support 
of Sickles, after a desperate struggle, secured Round Top : and 
though Longstreet forced Sickles back from his salient rein- 
forced by troops from the Second, Fifth, Sixth, and Twelfth 
corps, he secured only a small benefit commensurate with liis 
loss after a long and bloody engagement lasting from 4 o'clock 
p. M. until it was dark and late in the night. 

The centre of the Union line was occupied by the Second 
Corps, under Hancock, who assumed command of the left soon 
after Sickles was wounded. The Nineteenth Maine Regiment, 
under Colonel Heath, assisted in repulsing the attack of Hill 
at the close of the day, and made a charge driving the enemy 
beyond the Emmitsburg Road, recapturing the guns of one of 
our batteries which had been abandoned. The casualties of the 
regiment in killed and wounded exceed those of any other 
Maine regiment on this field. 

In the Third Corps position between Round Top and the 
Peach Orchard on the Emmitsburg Road, the Fourth Maine 
Regiment, Col. Elijah Walker, was in the Devil's Den ; the 
Seventeenth, Lieut. -Col. Charles B. Merrill, was in the Wheat- 
field ; and the Third Maine, Col. Moses B. Lakeman, was in 
the anffle of the salient at the Peach Orchard. 



10 MAINE AT GETTYSBURG. 

The I ourth Maine, Avith gi*eat sacrifice, successfully repelled 
a determined attempt of Law to gain the rear of Birney, and 
by counter charges was largely instrumental in holding back 
the overwhelming forces brought against Devil's Den until our 
lines were established farther back. The Seventeenth Maine, 
substantially alone, held the Wheatlield against successive 
onslaughts of thrice its numbers of the veterans of Longstreet 
until it was relieved by Hancock's troops, after more than two 
hours of fighting, in which it sustained a loss of one-third of 
its strength in killed and wounded. The Third Maine with 
two other regiments in the Peach Orchard defeated the fierce 
attacks of Kershaid's South Carolinians upon the south front 
of that position, and held the ground until the enemy gained 
the rear of the Orchard, nearly surrounding the small remnant 
of the command. 

When Longstreet^ late in the day, was forcing the Union 
troops back upon our main line with the help of Hill, who 
aided to dislodge the Second Division of the Tliird Corps from 
the Emmitsburg Road, the reserve artillery under Major 
McGilvery assisted in repelling the enemy's final attack. The 
Sixth Battery, under Lieut. E. B. Dow, took part in the stand 
then made and enabled our infantry to re-form. 

On the extreme left of the Union line was the Twentieth 
Maine Regiment, under Col. Joshua L. Chamberlain. His 
regiment was on the left of the Fifth Corps troops that took 
possession of Little Round Top and prevented the enemy, after 
desperate fighting, from turning our left. After expending all 
his ammunition. Colonel Chamberlain, by a timely charge, 
drove his opponents down the west side of the hill and capt- 
ured many prisoners. After dark the regiment seized and held 
Big Round Top. 

The Seventh Maine Regiment, Lieut. -Col. Selden Connor, 
took position on high ground east of Rock Creek, the extreme 
right of the Union infantry line, where it protected our flank, 
but was not severely engaged after having driven the enemy's 
skirmishers out along its front. 

Capt. Jacob McClure, Co. D, 2d U. S. Sharpshooters, was 
out on the skirmish line in front of the First Division of the 



THIRD DAY OF BATTLE. 11 

Third Corps, between Round Top and the Emmitsburg Road, 
and was under constant fire from morning until the general 
advance of Longstreet in the afternoon. When the company 
fell back, some of the men remained in line of battle and filled 
vacant places in the thin line of the division. Others came 
under the command of Colonel Chamberlain on Little Round 
Top and assisted his company under Captain Morrill, who had 
command of a skirmish line on the left, where both delivered a 
flank fire upon the enemy at a critical moment. 

On the right of the Union army Ewell gained after dark a 
foothold on Culp's Hill, where a portion of the Twelfth Corps 
had vacated its ground when ordered near night to other parts 
of the Union army. 

During the movement against Culp's Hill, Early's division 
was directed to carry Cemetery Hill by a charge, preceded by 
an artillery fire from Benner's Hill from four Confederate 
batteries. These batteries, how^ever, were silenced by our bat- 
teries on Cemetery Hill and Stevens' Fifth Maine Battery in 
position between Cemetery and Culp's Hill. Then Earh/s 
infantry moved out, but were handsomely repulsed, suffering 
severe loss, especially from the enfilading fire on their left 
flank by the Fifth Maine Battery. 

THIRD DAY. 

At the close of the second day, Lee believed that he had 
effected a lodgment in both flanks of the Union army. Meade 
called a council of his corps commanders and decided to remain 
and hold his position, and at daylight attacked Ewell in force 
and compelled him to give up the ground that he had occupied 
the night before that had been left vacant by a portion of the 
Twelfth Corps. Then Lee determined to attack the centre of 
the Union line held by the Second Corps. He accordingly 
ordered Longstreet, who was opposed to the movement, to 
make this assault which is generally called "Pickett's Charge." 
Lee massed nearly one hundred and fifty guns of his artillery 
along Seminary Ridge and the Emmitsburg Road and opened 
fire against the Union line. Barely eighty guns from our side 



12 MAINE AT GETTYSBURG. 

could be put in position to reply, and a tremendous artillery 
duel followed that lasted for two hours. Then Pichett, Petti- 
grew, and Trimble, under order of General Long street, with a 
column of about fifteen thousand men, made a charge into the 
centre of the Union line ; but the charge failed, although some 
of Pichetfs men broke through a portion of Hancock's first 
line, where they were met, in front and flank, by other forces 
of the Second Corps, including the Nineteenth Maine Regiment, 
and some of the First Corps, which rolled them back with 
great losses in killed, wounded, and prisoners. This ended 
the fighting along the infantry line of the Union army. The 
farthest point reached by the Confederates in this charge is 
marked by the " High- Water Mark " monument. 

After the repulse of Pickett Kilpatrick made a charge from 
the extreme Union left without accomplishing much success. 
This was succeeded by an infantry reconnaissance composed of 
portions of the Fifth and Sixth corps — in the latter a part 
of the Fifth Maine Regiment participated — in the direction of 
the Peach Orchard, which resulted in the retirement of the 
enemy from nearly the entire front of the left of the Union 
lines to and beyond the Emmitsburg Road, the capture of a 
batch of prisoners, and the re-capture of a piece of artillery 
from the enemy. This successful and promising movement, 
however, was not followed up. There was a sharp and hard 
cavalry battle between Gregg, in conjunction with Custer, and 
Stuart, when the latter endeavored with his cavalry to pass 
around the Union right flank on the third day. Charges and 
counter charges were made there, and the Confederates, being 
defeated, withdrew from the field. 

Lee spent all of the fourth day and until daylight on the 
fifth preparing for retreat, but in the meantime intrenching for 
any attack that might be made. But Meade did not attack ; 
nor would he adventure anything. He permitted Lee to fall 
back to the Potomac without following up the advantage that 
he had gained. Lee crossed the Potomac at Williamsport and 
was followed some days after by Meade. 

Of the forces actually engaged, the Union loss in the battle 
of Gettysburg was twenty-three thousand out of seventy-eight 



LB '03 



MAINE TROOPS ENGAGED. 13 

thousand ; the Confederate was twenty-three thousand out of 
seventy thousand, — about one-third of the entire number 
engaged. 

The iNIaine troops engaged at Gettysburg, arranged in 
{•hron()h)gicaI order, were as foHows : — 

Second ^Nlaine Battery, Capt. James A. Hall. 

Sixteenth Maine Regiment, Col. Charles W. Tilden. 

Fifth Maine Battery, Capt. Greenlief T, Stevens. 

Third Maine Regiment, Col. Moses B. Lakeman. 

Fourth Elaine Regiment, Col. P^lijah Walker. 

Seventeenth Maine Regiment, Lieut. -Col. Charles B. Merrill. 

Twentieth Maine Regiment, Col. Joshua L. Chamberlain. 

Nineteenth Maine Regiment, Col. Francis E. Heath. 

Sixth Maine Battery, Lieut. Edwin B. Dow. 

Co. D, 2d U. S. Sharpshooters, Capt. Jacob McClure. 

Fifth Maine Regiment, Col. Clark S. Edwards. 

Sixth ]Maine Regiment, Col. Hiram Burnham. 

Seventh Maine Regiment, Lieut. -Col. Selden Connor. 

First Maine Cavalry, Col. Charles H. Smith. 

Tenth Maine Battalion, Capt. John D. Beardsley. 




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